The Daily Unique: 7/27/08

IPhO 2008 - From this moment on

The Unique

The 39th IPhO passed by

The first time for Vietnam to hold

And perhaps the... unique chance for me to take part in.

Long time preparing (from May ), short time working (9 days) - with the String and extremely short time being together (how many hours?) - with contestants.

Came earlier and took photos.

See below: I am a V.I.P, hehe

Hah! Thinking about a Poem!

And being a true reporter. Hey, why all you guys stare at me? What's wrong? Oh oh, it turned out that I was so cute, keke

But look back!

The 1st day: US coming. I was the group leader of String to meet them. I came to La Thanh hotel at 9:30am. Then I found that the bus will pick US team from the airport to Thang Loi hotel (leaders' accommodation) first. My group of three quickly "plunged" to Thang Loi. We had to take photo of both leaders (especially Mr. Paul Stanley cause he did answer the online interview) and students. Unfortunately, the bus just stopped a moment and had to leave right after the leaders checked in. So... what to do now? I decided to jump in the bus returning to La Thanh, and the two others stayed.

I was on the bus. I took photos. I had a chat with Rui Hu in his room. Then I came back to Thang Loi (my motorbike was there). What the hell! Such "enormous" inexperienced reporter!

But I felt self-confident day by day. Everything ran quite smoothly. There were some days we met nearly 20 teams. We had to divide into 3 groups – one at the airport, one at Thang Loi and one at La Thanh. But according to my experiences, the La Thanh group was the most strenuous. My group of 3 or 4 had so many things to do. I took care all, introduce to the teams and ask for taking pictures. Our photographer took photos. Others interviewed students. Just imagine the moment 2 buses (with a total 8 to 10 teams) entered with luggage and you can not recognize who was who.

But take it easy! We can do what we want. Of course it made me bored sometimes when I just had one thing to do: find out a student to ask some boring commonplaces. What I did to oppose this was to find out someone (or smth) interesting to focus in. And I found Spain! They were really fun.

Best ever Macarena dancers!!!

Time went by. I lived in the sweet stream of unforgettable memories. And it seemed to be a chance. I was accidental on bus C11 because it (luckily) had a room for press. I discovered there were so many funny and open – minded people surrounding me. They are Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Srilanka, Suriname, Thailand, Taiwan, the guides, and of course – the press myself!

First they introduced their team and teammates, then they sang (some) song(s) in their mother tongue. I remembered something like su lay lay, li lay lay from Srilaka, or Lemon tree from Spain. And all of them were so cute, like this:

'Ôi giời ơi, nóng quá!', Dở hơi! Anh muốn cưới em. Sướng quá. Mát quá. Cá mập!!! Chuột, chuột!!! Are you???

Yup, perhaps singing was a hard work, and the babies quickly falling asleep. And they were much lovelier being like this:

Sleeping and dreaming of a medal, keke

Too much fun was not only at the hotel or on the bus but also on the boat. It was when I played card with Nick (Thailand), Kandasamy (Srilanka) and Thuy from String. Nick lost. He was ordered to hug the camera – man. Ha – ha, and he used all his strength and calm to ‘approach’ the man.

Nick: Oh... I’m so sorry, this was they ordered me, not my intention. I’m so sorry...

And when the Sweden’s guide lost, she was asked to kiss Alex (Spain). She cried aloud but then immediately gave me her camera to take photo! How ‘mysterious’ Vietnamese girls are! But then I thought it was Alex’s fault cause he was so cute, ke – ke...

We reached Ha Long bay. And I had to ...pay such a high price for my subjectivity. I did not enter the cave to reach the boat so I had to jump from boat to boat nearly 5 times. I finally found the C11 boat! Hah... Some Switzerland guys looked at me as if I came from Mars!

But after all I still feel good thinking about each String published and people reading with a smile, like this:

IPhO 2008 was a chance for me to write some articles and I considered them to be meaningful gifts for contestants, especially C11.

Me and IPhO: http://vnmedia.vn/print.asp?newsid=139037

After theoretical test: http://www.vovnews.vn/?nid=71926&page=109

Encouragement from leaders: http://www.vovnews.vn/?page=109&nid=72105

Some faces: http://www.vovnews.vn/?page=109&nid=71822

Fun IPhO: http://www.tienphong.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=131321&ChannelID=71

Opening Ceremony: http://www.tienphong.vn/Tianyon/Index.aspx?ArticleID=130803&ChannelID=2

IPhO 2008 gave me a chance to take so many beautiful pictures which let me know how ‘xinh đẹp’ IPhO was. And there were a lot of memorable moments each day...